Swords
by Strawberry Eggs
Summary: A year has passed and the Newest Feather is born. All the Feather can remember from the cocoon dream are two swords. The other Haibane are nice and the town treats them all well, but why the feeling that the Feather shouldn't be there? [ON HIATUS]


Whoo! I sure like to write for different series! Let's see, I wrote fics for Girl Got Game, Pokemon, Tales of Symphonia, Vandread, and now Haibane Renmei, not to mention I have plans to write a Sword of Mana and Mother 1 fic sometime in the future...

Well in any case, this little story here is something that the muses have been pestering me about for quite some time. I can't really say why I thought of it, only that I wondered what it would be like if a certain character were to become a Haibane. I'm sure stories like this are fairly common (I haven't really read much Haibane Renmei fan fiction), but I'm hoping to make this interesting in due time.

The character that this story will focus upon is not an original creation. This character comes from another fandom, and will never be referred by his/her real/original name. Even once I finish it, I will not openly say who it is in the story. Really though, the introduction to this chapter should be a no-brainer to anyone who has watched/read/played the title the character is from (I purposely left out names of other people and places to avoid any dead giveaways in the intro). By the end of the story, I will confirm guesses and say who it is through Review Replies and PMs.

I should also note that I'll try to alternate between updating this fic and Tales of Phantasy/ ToP episode II. However, if I do not have the time/motivation, I will just leave this story un-updated until I finish ToP. If I get enough (or a few good) reviews, I may just be persuaded otherwise...

I now this isn't much, but I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

_"He's!..."_

_"It's just like before! He will continue to live as long as the crystal still exists!"_

_"And eventually…I will be taken over by the crystal."_

_"…"_

_"I'm tired of playing your game of good and evil. Hurry up and destroy the crystal. If you don't, this place will continue to drift away."_

_"But…"_

_"Do it now! Before I, too, am no longer myself…"_

_"Please…help him! Let him die while he's still himself!" _

_"…All right."_

_"Farewell, my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow. I wanted my own world, so I don't regret my choice. I would make the same choice all over again. I will continue to choose this path!"_

_"…You could have lived with us…in our world…Damn it…"_

* * *

**Chapter 1: A Faint Dream**

"Mmm…"

A pair of large blue eyes fluttered open slowly. The first thing they saw was pure white, a hazy white. It took a while for them to focus and realize what it really was: a pillow and bed sheets.

_A bed…I was asleep…?_

The eyes then caught the sight of faces as their owner sat up. They immediately set upon a girl with short brown hair who looked to be around 16 or so wearing a sailor uniform-like dress. Her eyes were brown as well, a bit darker in color. A gentle smile was on her face.

Next to her was another girl. In fact, they were all girls, five total. The one nearest the first girl had short black hair with a dark grayish shirt and lighter colored pants. Her eyes were very dark, nearly black as well. On the other side of her was a blond-haired girl with blue eyes behind a pair of glasses. She kept her hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a white blouse with a dark gray skirt. Next to her were two girls about two years younger than they were, both of them with shoulder length hair and nearly identical, save that one girl's hair was a lighter blonde and the other a darker, almost dirty blonde. Both their eyes were blue. Their outfits were different though, the former wearing a light purple blouse and dark blue skirt and the latter a green shirt with gray pants.

It was then that the owner of the eyes realized there was something off about the girls. Each one of them had a strange golden glowing ring floating above their heads. They also had what looked like tiny wings with charcoal gray feathers, far too small to allow them to fly.

"A-ang-"…A word tried to come out, but it was as if something wouldn't let them finish. Or that the word was once there, but was there no longer. The individual even felt the word should've been something very familiar. How could it just vanish?

"Huh?"

"How are you feeling?" The first girl asked, "You've been asleep for a while."

_Asleep for a while…Maybe I'm still asleep? A dream…_

"Hey, do you think they got confused when they sent him here?" The young "twin" with lighter hair asked.

"'They'?" her darker haired look-a-like inquired.

"You know, whoever or whatever decides which Nest we're sent to. I mean look at him. We all thought he was a girl at first!" the first twin continued.

"I guess you're right. That really was surprising, especially with that hair," the second twin agreed.

"Ki, Denkou, that isn't nice!" the blonde said a bit sternly, " And you're probably confusing him more."

He…of course. As far as he could see, he was the only male in the room. His blonde hair was long for a boy, going past his shoulders. His eyes were large and a bright blue color. He guessed he did look like a girl to some people.

"Where…am I?" He finally asked after dealing with the initial surprise.

"This town is called Guri," The girl in the sailor uniform replied.

"Guri…" he repeated quietly. He looked back at their wings and halos before asking, "Wha--who are you?"

" So now you're asking. I guess you're still a bit confused, huh?" the black haired girl asked. The boy nodded.

"We're called Haibane which means Charcoal Feathers. You are the newest born Haibane," The blonde haired girl responded.

"Hai...ba-ne…" he repeated, "Me? But…I don't have wings, or a halo like you."

"Oh, you'll get those soon enough," the lighter-haired twin said.

"Yes, but first, tell us about the dream you had in the cocoon?" The sailor uniformed girl asked.

"Co…coon…" he parroted. It slowly came to him. He recalled, for a brief moment, being inside something large and full of liquid. Yes…he clawed at the walls, and shortly after he blacked out.

There was something before that, but it felt strangely fuzzy and soft in his mind. Dreams were fuzzy and soft, right?

"My dream…" He turned his head downward a little, trying to recall what happened before, "I remember standing still... seeing bright flashes and other things in front of me, but most of them I couldn't really make out…What I did see very clearly were two swords. They moved through the air like someone was wielding them, but…I can't remember seeing anyone…" The boy explained.

"Swords…we'll have to name you after swords," the darker-haired twin said.

"Name me? But I already have a--huh?" he began to protest. He stopped when he had another mental block.

"You can't remember your name, can you?" The sailor uniformed girl asked.

"…But…that's impossible…"

"It's okay. We all felt like we had names, that we used to be somewhere else," she continued, "It's just that none of us remember. No one, not even ourselves, remembers who we were."

'_Used to be somewhere else'… Yes…I can't remember where I used to live either, but I know this place wasn't it. They all felt like this?_

"That's why we name ourselves after the dreams we had in the cocoon. It's an old tradition dating back before anyone can remember," the blonde-haired girl said, "I had a dream that I was surrounded by a dazzling light, so I'm Hikari."

"In my dream I was drifting in a river like a fish, so I'm Kana which stands for river fish," the black-haired girl said.

"Both Denkou and I were born at the same time, but we had different dreams. I dreamt that I was underneath a huge, magnificent tree, so I'm Ki which means tree," the lighter-haired twin said.

"And my name, Denkou, means lightning because in my dream, I saw these huge bolts of lightning coming down all around me," the darker-haired twin said.

"My name is Rakka, because I dreamt about falling from very high up in the sky," the brown-haired girl said.

The boy stayed silent. They named themselves? Aren't their parents supposed to name them? But the girl Rakka just said that no one remembered them. He felt like he had parents, but that was all, a feeling. He couldn't remember their faces, their voices, nothing. Their names, where they lived, their faces…didn't any of them find that strange?

"Sword…tou…ken…" The girl named Denkou thought out loud, looking up at the ceiling, "Ah, I got it!" She then looked directly at the boy, "'Tou' and 'ken' are both words for sword. Two swords, two words for sword. We'll name you 'Touken'."

"Touken…Touken…" he repeated softly. The boy finally allowed a small smile to cross his features, "I like it."

"Great! Ki, the halo mold?" Rakka asked. The younger girl nodded. He didn't notice it before, but Ki was holding a bronze-colored frying pan-like object with a hole in it. Stepping closer to the boy she opened the pan up, revealing a flat ring of light, just like the ones they all had floating above their head. Using a pair of similarly colored tongs, she lifted the ring out of the pan.

"Feather Touken to help guide your future as a fellow Haibane, I give you this halo," Ki said as she set the gold ring right above his head. The words were most likely some traditional speech given to everyone getting a halo. Letting it go, the ring wobbled around a little, nearly falling off. However the wobbling lessened until it stayed still, floating above his head and casting a ring of dim light on his already light-colored hair.

"I guess I really was the only one who actually needed a halo holder," Rakka chuckled.

"Ha, I remember that! The static electricity coming off your halo didn't help," Kana said with a laugh.

"I was just unlucky, wasn't I?" Rakka continued.

He had a halo, just like the rest of them. He had a name too, Touken. Already he had taken to the name. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before he got used to his sudden status as a Haibane. After all, these girls seemed very nice.

A place he belonged...It was faint at best, but he felt that he had been searching for just that for a long time...

"Oh, what about my win--ah!" Touken suddenly cringed as a sharp pain shot up from his back.

"That would be your wings," Denkou said.

"We should get everything ready. My wings came in pretty quickly," Rakka said.

"Huh? Ah!" Touken cringed again. The pain was a bit sharper that time. They all seemed calm about it, but he had a feeling, the next few moments weren't going be pleasant…


End file.
